Awards —

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Beech Forest in Autumn - published on 1x.com.

This is a detail of an ancient beech forest located in Mount Cimino, near the city of Viterbo, Italy. On July 2017, this forest was added to the list of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, and it is now one of the five nature sites in Italy. I went to this place for the first time in mid-November this year, and I could not believe how beautiful it was. I was on top of the 1000-meter-high mountain and the whole forest was immersed in thick, low clouds. The yellow leaves were shining against that grey background, and the scene I captured was magical to me. I took many pictures, as it was difficult to frame the right balance among the trunks and the leaves. The one shown here is my favorite as the warm leaves were still and sharp enough and the background was so pleasantly cold and, well, foggy. I used a tripod, of course, and set an aperture of F/2 to minimize DOF and increase blur in the background. I used the Zeiss 50 mm Makro Planar which, at F/2, gives that soft vignetting at the borders. To me, it adds even more mistery to the scene.

https://1x.com/photo/1433219/latest:user:8295

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BetterPhoto Second Place Winner and All Time Finalist

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=11257197&mem4Wins=243042&rowNumber=4&sortBye=L

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National Geographic "Your Shot" competition - The Daily Dozen

http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/911505/

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2012 Winner Nature's Best Backyard Competition

Published on the Spring-Summer Issue of Nature's Best Photography magazine

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2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition

Finalist picture in the category "In Praise of Plants"

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National Geographic "Your Shot" competition - The Daily Dozen

http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/1154223/

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Picture published on National Geographic Magazine International Edition

Your Shot Selection on September 2007 Issue

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/09/table-of-contents

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Biography

All the people I personally know are well aware that I divide most of my time between two passions of mine: Neuroscience and Macro Photography.

In Neuroscience, I have been working as a scientist in different research centers in the U.S.A, Singapore, Denmark, Germany, and Italy and now I am working as scientific consultant and Adjunct Professor in Educational Neuroscience in academia. I believe that studying how the brain and mind work is the most fascinating and useful knowledge that one can, and should, get. That is why, now, I teach Educational Neuroscience, how the brain works when we need to learn something new for our private and professional life. Along all our life cycle.

Practicing Macro Photography started when I was very young and my father gave me the only book in macro photography available around. It was a black and white book with notions and pictures that might make you smile nowadays. But it changed my life. It opened a universe of things to know and explore that never closed, and, eventually, brought me to change this passion into a profession.

Today, I work for eleven photographic agencies that sell my pictures all over the world. My specialization is nature, science, commercial and industrial macro photography. I work for private clients who like to hang artistic macros on their houses' walls. I have been Crew Member and Book Editor for 1x.com. I regularly organize courses and workshops in photography and am the author of the Handbook of Nature Macro Photography. And, of course, I take pictures for myself, spending as much time as possible in nature with the people I love the most.